Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) CFO Rajesh Vennam Sells 7,228 Shares

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) CFO Rajesh Vennam sold 7,228 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.71, for a total value of $1,313,399.88. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 10,262 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,864,708.02. This represents a 41.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Darden Restaurants Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of DRI stock opened at $188.66 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $168.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $158.27. Darden Restaurants, Inc. has a 1-year low of $135.87 and a 1-year high of $188.95. The company has a market cap of $22.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.35 and a quick ratio of 0.22.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The restaurant operator reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03. The business had revenue of $2.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.87 billion. Darden Restaurants had a net margin of 9.11% and a return on equity of 49.46%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.84 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Darden Restaurants, Inc. will post 9.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Darden Restaurants Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $1.40 dividend. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Darden Restaurants’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.15%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DRI. M&T Bank Corp grew its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 1.1% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 35,950 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,901,000 after buying an additional 380 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Darden Restaurants by 21.9% in the third quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 47,162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $7,944,000 after purchasing an additional 8,480 shares during the last quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Darden Restaurants during the third quarter worth approximately $777,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Darden Restaurants by 0.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,806,113 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $459,216,000 after buying an additional 17,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its holdings in Darden Restaurants by 96,162.9% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 8,861,000 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,454,356,000 after buying an additional 8,851,795 shares in the last quarter. 93.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on DRI. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $159.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Darden Restaurants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $190.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Friday, September 20th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Darden Restaurants from $194.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Darden Restaurants from $209.00 to $206.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Darden Restaurants from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $187.44.

Darden Restaurants Company Profile

Darden Restaurants, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates full-service restaurants in the United States and Canada. It operates under Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze, Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, and Capital Burger brand names.